Archive for John Singer Sargent

It’s getting a little cooler here, but no rain as yet. The umbrellas can stay dry for the moment. The umbrella invented thousands of years ago, but became popular in the Western world in the 16th century.It has been used in art quite a lot, more than I originally thought.

renoir-the-umbrellas 1883

Renoir’s Lise with umbrella was painted in 1867. Renoir features the umbrella in his Parisian street scene ‘Umbrellas’ , 1883. the painting is also interesting because of the way the artist is unafraid of cutting pieces of the people from the picture – like a snapshot.

In John Singer Sargent’s (1856 -1925) painting ‘Early Morning Walk’ the model is the artist’s sister Violet, I love the way the light plays upon this painting.

John Singer Sargent Morning Walk

I was amazed when researching these umbrellas, just how many times Singer Sargent used these in his paintings! Of course they’re not all umbrellas, sometimes they are parasols (to save the ladies fine complexions from the sun). I suppose they were the first ‘sunscreen’.

Parasols as well as providing protection, were also a colourful and feminine accessory for the woman. Even Monet painted the Lady with the parasol – and with good effect!

monet The Walk Lady with a Parasol 1875

Seurat Sunday afternoon

Parasols abound in the famous Sunday Afternoon in the Park painted by Neo impressionist Georges Seurat. He used Pointillism – tiny dots of colour to create this masterpiece which took him two years to complete!

But I can’t leave out Rene Magritte surrealistic ‘La Grande Guerre’ (The Big War) 1964. This work is often compared to his self-portrait ‘The Son of Man’ this is what the artist said about ‘The Son of Man’;-

At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present. quote from here

Magritte, The Son of Man

If we compare the Grande Guerre with ‘The Son of Man’ we can see a more optimistic and tranquil picture smelling of sweet flowers and hope.